Branson in May

Weekend trip to Branson

If you live in the Midwest, a trip to Branson, Missouri is a must.   Marty and I went toBranson with my parents this May and found some new places we would like to take our kids.

Driving South from Kansas City, you have to stop at the Osceolacheese factory on Highway 13 in Osceola, Mo. As the name indicates, they have cheese, cheese and more cheese and theyhave samples of every kind they make. They also have really good ice cream. http://www.osceolacheese.com/  Couldn't resist the hoakie picture taken by my hubby of me above.

We stayed at The Thousand Hills Golf Resort.  They have condos and cabins.  http://www.thousandhills.com/ We stayed in a two bedroom condo andwere very comfortable.  Once we checkedin and got settled, we went to Landry’s and had seafood for dinner.  This was a view seen from our patio table.

 Marty had crab legs and the rest of us hadfish and we all split a Banana’s Foster. Mom said she needed to try one since that is her maiden name.

Saturday morning we got up and got ready and went tobreakfast at Chateau on the Lake pictured above.  They have an incredible brunch with a beautiful lake view.

Thenwe went out to the Wilderness Club to check it out.  It is a really neat place and we aredefinitely going to take all the kids there for a vacation.  They have a lazy river, horseback riding,pools, volleyball, shuffle board, paddle boats, and more. 

Saturday evening we went to the Branson Landon for someshopping and ate dinner at Bass Pro’s seafood restaurant.  This time we opted for fried seafood.  I had the fried catfish dinner and Mom, Dadand Marty had the fish and chips. 

Sunday morning we had an excellent brunch at the WormanHouse at the Wilderness Club.  It wasexcellent.  They had everything you couldimagine on the buffet, live entertainment and another great view of the lake.

Branson has so much more to offer.  If you haven't been you should go.

Travel & Leisure Photo Contest

http://community.travelandleisure.com/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=40020749&as=135852


I just entered the Travel & Leisure photo contest for the month of May.  The theme is water. 

This is one of my favorites.  I took this in Maui.  This boat Captain got in big trouble.  He came too close to the coral reef and beached his boat.  They were not able to move it because it would harm the coral too much so they just left it there.

This is a little canal entrance for small boats into the main Marina in Cap Cana Dominican Republic.  It reminds me of a pictures from Italy.

I love this picture because it was the most peaceful place to be.  We spent one afternoon that rained inside here reading. 

This was taken in the Riviera Maya area of Mexico.  I was playing around with Black & White and Sepia. 

Let me know if you can access my profile on Travel & Leisure.  My user name is jenland.

Cancun

Heading to Cancun next month

We just booked a family vacation to Cancun.  We will be traveling June 14th - 20th so I thought I should write a post about preparing for the trip.  Everyone except Marty and I need passports so I am going to give some info on getting passports.

This time, we won't be just landing at the airport and heading out of Cancun.  This time we are staying on the hotel strip in Cancun at the brand new Riu Palace Cancun Peninsula.

Alisha and Jerad and Haylee had to get new passports but Shelby's was a little more challenging because she already had one that had expired.  I went to the post office and they gave me an application and the location of three post offices that could help us with Shelby's passport.

  We ended up going to a completely different location then they had given us.  Long story short, call and ask someone and then call someone else and double check with them.

Everyone got their passports this week so we are set to go!

 

 

Puerto Vallarta in April

Almost a year ago my husband surprised me for my birthday and took me to Puerto Vallarta for my birthday!  What a great birthday present. 

This is one of the many beautiful statues along the Malecon. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip because Marty didn't know I was taking it.  He was sitting in front of the Cathedral drinking a bottle of water.  Below is the Cathedral.

I highly recommend Riu Palace Resorts anywhere you travel.  They are beautiful and have excellent service.  They will spoil you rotten.

The coastline along Puerta Vallarta.  We were on an excursion heading to a horseback ride up a waterfall.

My favorite little cafe in Puerto Morelos

I intended to blog when I was traveling, but since the website was in Spanish and I don't speak enough Spanish to figure it out, I didn't keep up my blog as I was traveling.  I have some great pics and memories though because I keep a travel journal so I am going to post them as I can now.

Yoga on the pier to start the day and Mayan coffee to end

I started the day by going to the fitness center after breakfast and found some great new tunes on my ipod so I got inspired and decided to go for a short run on the beach. It's alot harder to run on sand and I didn't make it too far, but it was still very enjoyable. After I was done running, I was at a neat little pier in front of our resort so I walked to the end and thought, "Hmmmm......this would be a cool place to do yoga.........so I thought.........I'm gonna do Yoga. I mean, I can't look that stupid and I don't know anyone here." However we did run into some people from Gardner that we know on the airplane." Marty and I spent the middle part of the day next to the pool in a lounge chair. We expected our friends Debbie and Terry around 4 p.m. so at about 2:30, we decided to get massages at the little shack on the beach. Awesome!!!!!!!!!! So about 3:30, being so relaxed after our massage, we were half out of it and we went to the lobby to wait for Debbie and Terry to arrive from the shuttle from the airport. I need to download some pics. The lobby here is incredible. I'm too tired to describe it tonight, but I promise to take some pics and download them tomorrow. Debbie and Terry arrived, a little bit tired but with good news about his bone scan and mri. No cancer in his bones or anywhere else. It is only in his prostrate and he plans to be very agressive because his father passed away from prostate cancer. He wants to have surgery before the end of the year so they will get that scheduled asap. We gave them a short tour of the resort, since this is our 2nd visit here and they fell in love with it, just like we did when we came this past January. We had some appetizers and lounged in the preferred club for a little bit then went to get ready for dinner. We went to Bordeaux, the French restaurant. Very good and the guys were a little overly fascinated by the guy that was making the flaming Mayan coffee. So we had to have some of that after dinner. The guys bought a couple Cuban cigars (LOL) and we walked down to the beach. I showed D & T Jupiter but did confess that I knew that because of my google sky map app. They were still pretty impressed I think. We walked down to the beach and sat in some lounge chairs. The moon was about 3/4 full and the moonlight on the Caribbean was spectacular. After that it was time to head up to our rooms and recoop for the next day. Couldn't resist sitting in the jacuzzi on the balcony again and now I'm ready to turn in. Believe it or not, Marty made it to about 11 p.m. I know Allison will be impressed. Okay, big day tomorrow. Probably walking to Puerto Morelos, about 1 mile down the beach. I'll update again tomorrow night. I can say I love all my readers, Okay, my Mom is my only official follower, but I know my sister Kathryn, read my blog last night too. Have to learn how to invite people or whatever. Later, Jen

I saw Jupiter Tonight

My husband Marty and I arrived in Cancun, Mexico this afternoon. It was much warmer and humid than Kansas City when we got outside to find our shuttle to our resort. We arrived at the Dreams Cancun Riviera Maya resort about 4 p.m. After we got settle in our room, we walked down to the beach and then to the little oceana restaurant and had some ahi tuna for an appetizer. Then we went to the preferred club and had more appetizers. Yum! I kept thinking of the song that Fred Astaire sang in one of his movies, "Heaven........I'm in heaven........." Don't know any other words, but that song kept popping into my head. The highlight of the day though was sitting in a jacuzzi on our balcony of our room. It was very windy tonight and felt like a storm was maybe moving in but the air was warm. I looked up at the stars and the clouds moved across the sky as I sat in the tub for about 20 minutes. I tried to identify maybe the big dipper or little dippper, but couldn't remember much from my astronomy class in junior college. I thought that one particularly bright star must be a plant and I was right! My android phone was dead, so I had it plugged in to charge and after right for a few minutes I just went out on the balcony again and used the google star map and it was Jupiter! How cool is that? Technology is cool, but it's nice to just sit and take in nature also. I sat in the jacuzzi on the balcony listening to the Caribbean ocean crashing it's waves onto the beach at one of the places in the world with the 2nd largest coral reefs with stars and planets moved slowly overhead. What could be better than that? Not much else to report from today. Most of the day was travel to the airport, from KC to Dallas, from Dallas to Cancun, uneventful, which is always good when you are flying. We did see a couple women from Gardner that we knew. Small world. We came to this resort in January of 2011 and it is just as beautiful this time. We noticed as we drove from the airport to the resort, that it is more green this time. I think they have had lots of rain. Hopefully we will have lots of sun and I will be able to do lots of research for my article that I am working on for the Riviera Maya area. The timing could not be better,I am taking a travel writing class on line and the most recent assigment is to write the article for which we just did a query letter. It's only 7:48 but it's been a long day. Went to bed about midnight last night. Someday I will be able to get my packing down to a shorter time. Got up at 5 a.m. and have been traveling all day. Lots of rest and relaxation the next seven days though, so I think I will manage. Thanks for reading my travel blog. I will have more updates tomorrow night and hopefully pictures from this beautiful area of the world that I am blessed to be able to visit.